Opposition wants paper trail on distribution of billions in cash grants

Jan 26, 2024 News

Opposition MP, Khemraj Ramjattan

Kaieteur News – Former Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan has called out the government for failing to transparently distribute billions of dollars from the treasury to compensate farmers and fisherfolk.

He also cited a similar blackout of information regarding the beneficiaries of other cash handouts such as the $200,000 entrepreneurs’ grant. The Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) was at the time making his contribution to the 2024 Budget Debates at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Georgetown on Tuesday when he raised his concerns.

He told the National Assembly, “They have this arrangement whereby PPP activists are distributing monies and they are bypassing Coalition supporters. I have heard of arrangements whereby some the PPP supporters are begging the activists please ensure you give that man something, not because he’s a known opposition person.”

Ramjattan continued, “And they got the money in they haversack and they distributing. Is that how you run a country? Why is it that you do not have an accountable system that states who is doing the distribution and also who are collecting?”

The leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC) party contended that he has requested the list of beneficiaries of the $200,000 small business grants, however the information has not been handed over. According to him, “…you don’t want to give us, since the Covid-19 relief we asked, the flood relief we asked, the fishermen’s relief we asked, you never provided it…that is not how you operate accountably and you must understand too Mister Speaker that these persons don’t understand that democracy got certain pillars.”

Ramjattan continued that while he agrees that free and fair elections is an important pillar in a democracy, government must also recognise the three other equal pillars- good governance, rule of law and accountability. He said, “We are not getting the accountability one here at all…it is important that we get these figures. I have been asking, take for example, what was it that was given to some members after the flood relief and was told by the agriculture minister, we don’t have any information to give. How could you do that and the fisherman’s relief also.”

The Opposition MP stressed the need for transparency and accountability as he pointed out that billions are now at the disposal of the administration in this year’s budget.

Meanwhile, Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha in an invited comment told Kaieteur News that the list of beneficiaries of the respective grants is available. While he directed this publication to the Ministry of Finance, he did not respond to further questions regarding online availability of the information. Kaieteur News was however able to find a list of fisherfolk that received compensation in 2022. See link attached. https://agriculture.gov.gy/2022/08/08/ministry-of-agriculture-fishermen-cash-grant-list/

This publication was unable to locate a similar list of beneficiaries for the farmers and entrepreneurs who benefited from cash payouts by government. The government had distributed close to $8B in emergency relief to farmers that were affected by the 2021 floods. The payout to each farmer varied, relative to their losses. See more here: https://dpi.gov.gy/over-9b-spent-for-emergency-relief-to-farmers-households-in-2021/

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accountability, Budget debates, cash grant, Ramjattan, Transparency

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